Bolingbrook, Plainfield seek state, federal aid for flood damage

A massive hole in the road caused by flooding just north of incorporated Plainfield on 111th Street. (Geoff Ziezulewicz, Tribune photo)

Officials in Plainfield and Bolingbrook are applying for state and federal assistance to help pay for damage incurred during last month's storms and floods.

The towns became eligible for assistance after Gov. Pat Quinn declared Will County and 37 other counties disaster areas on April 19.

While private property estimates are still coming in, Plainfield will likely apply for several hundred thousand dollars worth of aid, Village Manager Brian Murphy said. The dollars would cover the costs of sandbags, overtime for public works and police crews, as well as cleanup.

Murphy attributed the local flooding to not just flash floods, but also failed sump pumps in homes.

Compared to the last major flood, in 2008, Public Works Director Allen Persons said there was improvement in the time it took to recruit volunteers and set up road closures and detours.

"It worked a lot more smoothly than it ever has in the past," he said.

In 1996, the wastewater plant was submerged by flood waters, he said.

"It hit us a lot harder because the infrastructure wasn't as strong," Persons said.

Homes on Marybrook Drive, which abuts the Normantown creek, suffered some of the worst flooding. Some residents blamed a concrete retaining wall on the other side of the creek for causing the street to flood and basements to fill up with water. Murphy said many areas of the creek, which snakes throughout town, also saw severe flooding.

Persons said the village has beefed-up drainage policies. Builders must replace any displaced permeable surface, such as soil, with 150 percent of that lost drainage capacity, he said. They could use retention ponds or the kind of massive draining tanks like those on the north side of the Walgreens near the downtown on Illinois Route 59.

Murphy and other town officials also praised the legions of volunteers who helped fill about 30,000 sandbags that were distributed to residents. By the end, he said, "We kind of had to tell people to go home."

Meanwhile, Bolingbrook will apply for nearly $1 million to help with the costs of flooded homes and damage to some public buildings, Public Works Director Mike Drey said. About 75 homes suffered some sort of storm-related damage, and two facilities — the treatment plant's electrical system and the dog pound — were damaged, he said.

What happened at the treatment plant did not affect the about 15 homes that had raw sewage flow into their basements, he said.

The requests for assistance will be sent to Will County officials, Drey said, adding that the damage was not extensive.

"As dominating as it was for the people affected, and this is not minimizing that, it was very few," he said.